Advent Challenge '15

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Aftermath of Mother's Day

So hands up if you had a little complain about Mother's Day? What if it was a little less than all you had hoped for? Last year I wrote about my Mother's Day which ended up making for quite a funny read, but just showed how ridiculous the whole business is.

Yet, mothers continue to hope for so much from the day and then often feel disappointed. It seems to me that it is especially mothers of small children who are not supported well by their husbands.

After listening to many sad tales of disappointment in the past few days, it dawned on me that often the disappointment comes from men's apparent inability to mind read.

'I don't want to have to TELL him what I want from the day - he should just KNOW'. Poor man - he is doomed for failure.

And if he hasn't been particularly useful over the past 364 days since the last Mother's Day (thus the mother's d e s p e r a t e need for a break), it's quite possible that he hasn't actually just KNOWN what he's meant to have been doing all along. Especially if no one felt the need to TELL him.

Some men are slackers. But lots aren't and love their wives and would quite like to do the right thing by their wives.

But why we persist with the 'you should have just known' position is beyond me. It's not fair, it's not realistic and it's not going to help.

My guess is that it's not just Mother's Day that this happens. It's all the time and guys just give up. Why bother when I'm either going to get into trouble for not meeting an unspoken expectation or get into strife for not quite meeting a certain standard? I'd certainly feel defeated if it was coming the other way.